The related patent incorporated herein by reference discloses a new concept for making fuel pellets directly from a log by incising the cross section of a desired pellet into the periphery of a log and by cutting/peeling the log in a veneer lathe type apparatus wherein the veneer depth is less than the depth of the incisions in the periphery of the log.
Veneer lathe devices, especially those used for plywood manufacture, are generally large and very expensive precision devices. There is a need for a lathe device which is customized for the manufacture of pellets and which is smaller and very much less expensive.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide methods and apparatus to provide a compact, low cost, veneer lathe type device which manufactures pellet fuel directly from logs at a high rate at low operating cost.
It is a further object to provide a pellitizer which can be transported and operated in the forest to reduce the production costs and the transportation costs of pellets produced thereby.